Pete Leonard opened his new artisan bakery last week and was shocked when customers informed him his queue was running all the way down the street.
Bandit Bakery welcomed customers through its doors for the first time last Wednesday, and since then lines of people have been queuing up and down Rose Street to get their hands on Pete’s baked goods.
Only open from 10am to 3pm Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, the bakery has had to close before noon every day due to selling out as a result of the sheer demand from eager customers.
Specialising in sourdough, Pete says it was the cinnamon buns, which he put on sale as a treat at the weekend, which sold out in less than an hour each day with everyone trying to get their hands on one.
He said: “We’ve been open four days and I’m still trying to get my head around it all. I’m mind blown. We opened on Wednesday for the first time, then Thursday and opened on Saturday and Sunday at the weekend.
“It was crazy. On Wednesday and Thursday we were mainly focused on bread, and at the weekend we decided to launch the cinnamon buns – we thought it would make a nice weekend treat.
“I don’t think I expected them to be that popular. I was in the bakery working away and focused on that. Someone came in as we opened and said ‘Do you realised you have a queue right the way down the road?’. There was blocks and blocks of people queuing.
“I was totally amazed by the support. Opening the business we want it to be popular and successful and the support really acknowledged that and showed me it was everything I had wanted it to be. The response has been incredible and has been beyond what I expected.”
Sold out
Selling out each day before lunchtime, Pete’s business, which has been part-funded by a successful community Crowdfunder, has proven extremely popular and says the support from those living locally has been “incredible”.
With queues of at least 40 people deep at the weekend, Pete said while it has been great to see so many people coming along, it has been “nerve-wracking” in trying to keep up with demand.
“Each day I’ve been in at 4.30am. On the Wednesday I didn’t sit down until 5.30pm. All of the work which we’ve put in up to this point and since opening, when you see it being so positively received and so popular, it just makes it all worth it,” said Pete.
“I made as much as I physically could. Every day we opened up at 10am and we were sold out by around 11.30am or noon. There’s so many people who are really happy that we’re open and we’ve had massive support from the French community in Aberdeen who are excited about an artisan bread maker opening in the city. There’s some people who have followed my journey from my days from working at vegan cafe, Foodstory, who have been looking forward to it, too.
“Because I was inside and so focused on what I was doing I had no idea what was happening outside. I couldn’t believe it when the customers were telling us the queues were right down the road. It was amazing, but a little nerve-wracking!”
Hot picks
With cinnamon buns in hot demand and selling out within the hour, and some days within half an hour, Pete is determined to bring this sweet treat back to the bakery this week and will focus on baking as much as he can in advance to ensure all of his customers can get his hands on one this weekend.
“The sourdough we’ve been making has been really popular and selling really well. I’ve been making focaccia which I’ve topped with a seasoning dust which I get from a producer called Tubby Toms and there’s one which is a vegan baking dust which tastes like Frazzles crispy bacon crisps, a garlic and herb one and a Cajun spiced seasoning.
“We’re still trying to figure out what our maximum capacity is. I made around 40 cinnamon buns on Saturday and they were gone within about 25 minutes. On Sunday I made maybe around 90, and they were gone within an hour.
“We use a lot of spelt and get it from a farm just outside Aberdeen and we’ve got a flour mill in the bakery so we make our own flour fresh. We had a spelt loaf with brown sugar and it was super popular. All of our products are vegan at the moment.
“My wife Sarah was helping out at the weekend and I had a guy who used to work at Foodstory helping front of house on Wednesday and Thursday.”
Apologetic to customers who didn’t manage to get their hands on some of Pete’s in-demand baked goods at the weekend, the entrepreneur urges those who really want a bite of the action to visit the bakery early to avoid disappointment.
He added: “We’re still trying to find out what is going to work best for us and the customers in terms of opening times. I did feel really sorry for the customers who didn’t manage to get a hold of anything.
“On Saturday Sarah had to go outside and shout down the queue that the cinnamon buns had sold out. Even after that people were still queuing right down the road waiting.
“Some people had queued for ages and we had people coming down around noon to get some products and we had to tell them we’d sold out.
“We’re going to try and be more streamlined and efficient. I think I’d rather have everything ready to go when we open, rather than still adding to the counter as we opened. We were going to try and figure out what was most popular, but to be honest everything was popular. I think we’ll focus on the same stuff again this week and make sure we have as much as we can.”